The invention relates to a regenerative heat exchanger and is particularly concerned with such a heat exchanger for transferring heat from turbine exhaust gases to compressed air being supplied to a combustion chamber of a gas turbine engine.
Stationary regenerative heat exchangers have been used in industrial heat engine plants and have comprised pairs of heat storage chambers through which the alternate flow of fluids between which heat exchange is to be effected has been controlled by separate valves associated with each heat storage chamber. An example of such a heat exchanger is the well-known Cowper stove used in iron and steel works. The valves employed in such heat exchangers are usually manually-operable and therefore the known regenerative heat exchangers would not be suitable for use with small gas turbine engines of the kind proposed to be used in automotive gas turbine engines, which normally have a rotary regenerative heat exchanger in which heat exchange is effected automatically.